Vintage Story: Temporal Mechanics Guide
Checked on 13 October 2026 against Vintage Story 1.22.7: the game's own files and a running dedicated server. Real minutes assume the default day length of 48 real minutes per in-game day.
Temporal stability is the cyan gear between your health and hunger bars. It is a meter from 0 to 100% that rises while you stand somewhere stable and falls while you stand somewhere unstable: the gear turns clockwise while it rises and counter-clockwise while it falls. Below 30% the world fogs over, below 13% it starts to hurt you, and every few days a temporal storm drags the whole world down at once. This guide gives the numbers the game actually uses.
Temporal Stability Basics
What is Temporal Stability?
There are two values. The ground has a stability of its own that changes from place to place, from 0% to 150%. You carry a personal meter from 0% to 100%, and the ground pulls it: ground above 100% fills your meter, ground below 100% empties it, and filling is four times faster than emptying. A low meter causes:
- Fog and rust colored rain: below 30%.
- Screen glitching: below 20%, stronger the lower you go.
- Drifters closing in: below 25% light protects you less from drifter spawns, and below 12.5% they spawn within 10 blocks of you.
- Damage: below 13%, a hit every 4 seconds. At 0% that is 0.15 health per hit, about 2.25 health a minute against a default 15.
Stability Levels
| Your stability | Effects | Safety Level |
|---|---|---|
| 30% to 100% | No effects | Safe |
| 25% to 30% | Fog closes in, rain turns rust colored | Safe, but move |
| 20% to 25% | Lit spots stop being fully safe: the game multiplies the light level by 4 times your stability before deciding whether a drifter may spawn there, so at 20% a light level of 8 counts as 6.4, under the limit of 7 | Caution |
| 13% to 20% | Screen glitching starts and grows | Dangerous |
| Below 13% | Damage every 4 seconds, and below 12.5% drifters and other rust creatures spawn within 10 blocks of you | Deadly |
| 0% | What the in-game handbook calls entering the rust world: full effects, the most damage, and light no longer stops drifter spawns at all | Deadly |
Factors Affecting Stability
Location-Based Stability
🏔️ Surface (80% to 150%)
At and above sea level the ground is never below 80% or above 150%. Which you get depends on the spot, in patches across the map.
A spot under 100% drains you slowly: about an hour from full to empty at 80%.
⛏️ Underground (0% to 150%)
Below sea level the value drifts toward a raw field that reaches 0% in places, and it loses up to about 12 more points near bedrock.
Some caves are stable, many are not. The gear's direction tells you which.
🌋 Rifts (a local pull)
A rift only pulls within about 5 blocks of its edge, but hard: at the edge a full meter empties in under a minute.
Only visible rifts do this.
Inside the Resonance Archives and the game's other story locations the ground is fixed at 100%, so your meter holds wherever it is, and hostile creatures do not spawn there naturally.
Items That Affect Stability
| Source | Stability Effect | How |
|---|---|---|
| Temporal gear and a knife | +30% at once | Gear in your left hand, knife in your right, hold right mouse for about 2 seconds. Uses up the gear and costs 2 health; refused at 2 health or less. |
| Killing a rust creature | +1% (normal) to +2.5% (corrupt), +30% for a nightmare, +35% for a boss | Drifters, shivers and bowtorns of the same tier give the same. Capped at 100%. |
| Standing on stable ground | Empty to full in about 7 minutes on a 150% spot | Any ground over 100% fills the meter; see how fast the meter moves. |
That is the whole list for the base game. No food, drink, armor or block raises your stability.
Temporal Storms
Storm Mechanics
A storm is a world event on a schedule. For as long as it lasts, every spot in the world loses 1.5 times the storm's strength: 80 to 95 points in a light storm, 100 to 116 in a medium one and 135 to 150 in a heavy one. Even a 150% spot falls under 100% in a light storm, so outside story locations every player drains during every storm.
How often storms come depends on the world's temporalStorms setting. The gap shrinks as the world ages, until it reaches full growth:
| Setting | What the world menu says | Gap at world start | Gap at full growth | Full growth from | Storm length, start / full growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very rare | Every 30 to 40 days, capped at +25% | 24.8 to 34.7 days | 23.1 to 32.3 days | day 264 | 2.5 h / 3 h |
| Rare | Approx. every 20 to 30 days, capped at +50% | 19.5 to 29.3 days | 17.1 to 25.7 days | day 214 | 2.6 h / 3.6 h |
| Sometimes (default) | Approx. every 10 to 20 days, capped at 100% | 9.3 to 18.5 days | 7.5 to 15 days | day 114 | 3 h / 4.8 h |
| Often | Approx. every 5 to 10 days, capped at +150% | 4 to 8.1 days | 3.3 to 6.7 days | day 39 | 4.1 h / 6 h |
| Very often | Approx. every 3 to 6 days, capped at +200% | 2 to 3.9 days | 1.8 to 3.6 days | day 9 | 6.3 h / 7.2 h |
Days are in-game days since the world was created, lengths are in-game hours (one in-game hour is 2 real minutes). The menu text is shortened here. Note that Very rare actually rolls 25 to 35 days before growth, not the 30 to 40 its menu label promises. On a fresh Sometimes world running 1.22.7, /nexttempstorm answered The next temporal storm is in 13.15 days, inside the 9.3 to 18.5 range above.
Growth also makes storms stronger. Each storm rolls light, medium or heavy:
| Setting | At world start | At full growth |
|---|---|---|
| Very rare | all light | 91% light, 9% medium |
| Rare | all light | 52% light, 38% medium, 9% heavy |
| Sometimes | 92% light, 8% medium | 52% medium, 48% heavy |
| Often | 27% light, 45% medium, 28% heavy | 25% medium, 75% heavy |
| Very often | 19% medium, 81% heavy | all heavy |
Growth follows the calendar date, counted from 1 January of year 0, and every world starts on 1 May. With the default 9 day months that is already day 36, which is why the first storms are not at zero growth. A world created with longer months starts later in the calendar, so its storms start stronger: with 30 day months a Sometimes world is at 80% of full growth from its first storm, and four storms in five are medium or heavy.
The warnings are chat messages that name the strength:
- A light temporal storm is approaching (or medium, or heavy): about 8 in-game hours before the storm, roughly 17 real minutes.
- A light temporal storm is imminent: about half an in-game hour before, roughly 1 real minute.
- The temporal storm seems to be waning: about half an in-game hour before the end.
- On a brand new world each player is told N days until the first temporal storm. on joining.
What a storm spawns. While a storm is active the game keeps spawning rust creatures around every player: at random spots up to 15 blocks away in every direction, dropped to the floor below, wherever there is room. Light plays no part, so a lit room is not safe; walls help only by keeping out what spawns on the other side. Each storm rolls one of six creature mixes, all equally likely: a mixed one, drifters only, two that lean on shivers, one that leans on bowtorns, and one of shivers and bowtorns with a few drifters. Within about 45 blocks of each player the mixed storm keeps 3 to 5 drifters, 2 shivers and 2 bowtorns topped up; a drifters only storm keeps 6 to 10 drifters. Stronger storms field more, and tougher, creatures:
| Storm | Normal | Deep | Tainted | Corrupt | Nightmare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light | 5% | 31% | 34% | 27% | 3% |
| Medium | 3% | 26% | 30% | 30% | 11% |
| Heavy | 1% | 19% | 26% | 26% | 28% |
One time in five, a corrupt or nightmare spawn is replaced by a boss, a double-headed drifter or a deepsplit shiver, as long as you have not had one near you this storm: at most one per player per storm. When the storm ends, every drifter, shiver and bowtorn loaded in the world has an even chance of vanishing on the spot; the rest stay.
Sleeping. On Standard, Wilderness Survival and Homo sapiens worlds a bed refuses you while a storm is active: If I go to sleep now, I would no longer be able to wake up. Exploration worlds allow it.
Storm Survival Strategies
- Act on "approaching": you have about 17 real minutes. Head for the shelter you built for this.
- Use walls, not torches: storm spawns ignore light and land wherever there is room within 15 blocks of you. A small sealed room leaves little room inside and keeps out what spawns outside.
- Go in topped up: a heavy storm empties a full meter in about 14 minutes, and a Sometimes storm at full growth lasts about 10 real minutes, so a full meter usually keeps you above the 13% damage line. A gear and a knife add 30% when you are short.
- Do not plan to sleep through it on Standard or Wilderness Survival; the bed refuses you.
- Kill the nightmares: each one gives back 30% stability.
Pro Tip: storm length is game time. At the default day length a storm on a Sometimes world lasts about 6 real minutes when the world is new and about 10 at full growth. On Very often it is about 13 to 14.
Temporal Rifts
Rift Characteristics
Rifts are temporary tears in reality on the surface:
- Appearance: glowing tears 2 to 6 blocks across, hanging just above the ground.
- Where: 16 to 196 blocks from a player.
- Lifetime: 8 to 56 in-game hours, from 16 real minutes to almost 2 real hours.
- Stability Drain: only within about 5 blocks of the edge, at full strength 2 blocks from it.
- Drifter Spawns: out in the open, drifters only spawn naturally near a rift: within 20 blocks of one at night, within 6 blocks by day, and then only 7% of the time.
- Loot: none. Rifts drop nothing; temporal gears come from rust creatures and ruins.
Rift Activity
How many rifts open depends on the world's current rift activity, rolled again whenever its period ends. Players see it on the character screen as Current Rift activity; admins read and reroll it with /dweather.
| Activity | Chance | Rifts per player, dark night (full day) | Lasts | Possible from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calm | 37% | 0 (0) | 10 to 30 in-game hours | day 3 |
| Low | 14% | 1.6 (0.7) | 10 to 30 in-game hours | day 1 |
| Medium | 28% | 4 (1.8) | 10 to 30 in-game hours | day 3 |
| High | 14% | 8 (3.6) | 9 to 19 in-game hours | day 3 |
| Very high | 5% | 12 (5.4) | 8 to 14 in-game hours | day 20 |
| Apocalyptic | 2% | 32 (14.4) | 7 to 11 in-game hours | day 30 |
Rifts per player is how many the game keeps open within about 190 blocks of each player; a fraction is a chance at one more, and moonlight puts a night between the two figures. Chances apply once every level is possible, after day 30. For the first 3 days of a world the activity can only be Low.
Rift-Proofing a Base
A rift will not open where block light is 3 or more at ground level or in the two blocks above it. Light the ground in and around a base and rifts stay out of it, as the in-game handbook also says. Water helps too: a rift that lands on water is refused 9 times in 10.
Because drifters out in the open only spawn within 20 blocks of a rift at night, lighting a margin around the base also keeps them away, outside storms. Under a roof or in a cave the ordinary rule applies instead: drifters can spawn where block light is 7 or less.
Drifters (Temporal Creatures)
Drifter Types
| Type | Health | Hit | Damage tier | Spawns naturally at | Stability when killed | Temporal gear when harvested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 12 | 2.5 | 0 | about y 94 and up | +1% | 2.7% |
| Deep | 16 | 4 | 1 | about y 24 to 98 | +1.5% | 3.3% |
| Tainted | 22 | 8 | 2 | about y 11 to 60 | +2% | 4% |
| Corrupt | 30 | 12, slashing | 3 | up to about y 38 | +2.5% | 4.7% |
| Nightmare | 40 | 20, slashing | 4 | up to about y 25 | +30% | 5.3% |
| Double-headed | 54 | 24, slashing | 4 | never, storm boss only | +35% | usually 1 |
Heights are for the default world, 256 blocks tall with sea level at y 110; the game stores them as fractions of the sea level height, so they scale on taller worlds. Shivers and bowtorns use the same five tiers with the same stability rewards and gear chances, tier for tier, and bowtorns shoot.
A dead drifter drops nothing by itself. Its loot (temporal gears, flax fibers, rusty gears) comes from harvesting the corpse (Shift and right click; the game's hint shows a knife), and the corpse decays after 3 in-game hours, about 6 real minutes.
Combat Tips
- Armor: damage tier is what armor is checked against. From corrupt up, drifters hit at tier 3 and 4 with slashing damage.
- Fleeing: a normal drifter runs off for 10 seconds 15% of the times you hit it; deep 7%, tainted 3%, corrupt 1.5%, nightmare 1%.
- Light: block light above 7 keeps natural drifter spawns away while your meter is at 25% or more. It does nothing in a storm.
- Rewards: a nightmare is worth 30% stability, as much as twelve corrupt drifters.
Temporal Gear Crafting
What Temporal Gears Are Used For
Temporal gears cannot be crafted. They are an ingredient and a tool, and these are all their uses in the base game:
| Use | Gears | How |
|---|---|---|
| Set your respawn point | 1 | Hold right mouse on a block for about 3.5 seconds; the point is where you stand. It gives 20 respawns on Standard, 3 on Wilderness Survival and unlimited on Exploration, and Homo sapiens does not allow it. |
| Restore stability | 1 | With a knife, +30%, costs 2 health. |
| Repair a static translocator | 3 | After 2 metal parts; the in-game hint asks for 3 gears. |
| Craft a resonator | 1 | With Jonas parts, a cupronickel rod, metal parts, an electrum plate and lead plates. |
| Craft a custom translocator | 2 | Needs the custom translocator schematic and a translocator part. |
| Craft a hacking spear | 1 | Tinkerer class only: a bronze spear and 2 metal parts. |
| Craft a gear amulet | 1 | With rope; it is worn on the neck. |
Obtaining Temporal Gears
- Harvesting rust creatures: 2.7% per corpse for a normal drifter up to 5.3% for a nightmare; a double-headed drifter usually gives one.
- Ruins and story locations: the game places them in some ruins and dungeons and in story locations such as the Resonance Archives.
- The treasure hunter trader: sells them, usually one in stock, for about 5 rusty gears.
- Panning: a very small chance, a tenth of a percent or less per pan.
Advanced Stability Management
Building in Low Stability Areas
For deep mining operations:
- Check before you build: stand still and watch the gear. Counter-clockwise means the spot drains you.
- Light where you work: keep block light above 7 around you while your meter is above 25%. Below that light counts for less, and below 12.5% drifters spawn within 10 blocks.
- Know the safe rooms: story locations hold your meter steady and stop hostile natural spawns.
- Carry the fix: a knife and temporal gears, 30% per gear.
How Fast the Meter Moves
Real minutes, from the game's own rate: the meter moves by the ground value minus 100%, divided by 800 per second when falling and by 200 when rising.
Ground value Full meter to empty
80% (lowest on the surface) about 69 minutes
33% (a 120% spot in a light storm) about 21 minutes
0% (unstable cave, heavy storm) about 14 minutes
rift edge under 1 minute
Ground value Empty meter to full
110% about 34 minutes
120% about 17 minutes
150% (highest) about 7 minutesImportant: the meter is personal. Two players on the same spot move at the same rate, each from their own level, and killing a creature only rewards the player who killed it.
Temporal Settings on a Server
The temporal systems are world settings. They are chosen when the world is created and can be changed later with /worldconfig. The storm and stability settings are read when the server starts, so restart after changing them; a storm already scheduled keeps its date.
| Setting | Values | Standard | Wilderness Survival | Exploration | Homo sapiens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
temporalStability | true, false | true | true | false | false |
temporalStorms | off, veryrare, rare, sometimes, often, veryoften | sometimes | often | off | off |
tempstormDurationMul | 0.25 to 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
temporalRifts | off, invisible, visible | visible | visible | visible | off |
temporalGearRespawnUses | -1 (unlimited), 1 to 20 | 20 | 3 | unlimited | 0 (none) |
temporalStormSleeping | 0 (no), 1 (yes) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Invisible rifts still exist and still let drifters spawn near them out in the open; players just cannot see them, and they do not drain stability. The storm schedule also reads tempStormFrequencyMul, which is not in the menu and defaults to 1: /worldconfigcreate double tempStormFrequencyMul 2 halves the gap between storms, starting after the storm that is already scheduled.
/nexttempstorm: days until the next storm, or what is left of the current one, such as Light Storm still active for 0.12 days. Needs the controlserver privilege./nexttempstorm now: starts the next storm now. On a 1.22.7 server A light temporal storm is imminent followed straight away./dweather: the current rift activity and how many more in-game hours it lasts./dweather resetrolls a new one. Needs controlserver./player [name] entity tempstab 1: sets a player's stability, from 0 to 1, so 1 is 100%. Needs grantrevoke./worldconfig temporalStorms often: changes the storm setting; restart to apply.
Every world setting and how /worldconfig treats it is in our worldconfig command reference, and the privileges behind these commands are in the server commands list.
Common Temporal Mistakes
| Mistake | Why It's Bad | How to Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Lighting the base as storm protection | Storm creatures spawn within 15 blocks of you whatever the light | Shelter in a small sealed room |
| Planning to sleep through a storm | Beds refuse you during a storm on Standard, Wilderness Survival and Homo sapiens | Wait it out awake; it lasts minutes, not hours |
| Going into a storm half empty | A heavy storm empties a full meter in about 14 minutes | Top up first on stable ground, or with a gear and a knife |
| Treating the surface as always safe | Surface ground runs from 80% to 150%, and under 100% drains you | Watch the gear's direction before you build |
| Killing drifters and walking off | The corpse holds the drops and decays after 3 in-game hours | Harvest it with Shift and right click |
Master temporal mechanics and survive the unstable world. Host your Vintage Story server with Supercraft for custom temporal settings and multiplayer survival.
Build the world config the easy way: our free Vintage Story World Configuration Generator turns a form into a ready to paste WorldConfiguration plus the matching /worldconfig commands.